Premium video content for our Spaceflight Now Plus subscribers.Post-impact news briefingOfficials hold a post-landing news conference in Utah a couple hours after Genesis returned to Earth on Sept. 8. (40min 52sec file)Play videoCapsule first spottedPowerful tracking cameras spot the Genesis capsule for the first time a couple hundred thousand feet above Earth, prompting applause in the control centers. But just moments later, that joy turned to heartbreak. (1min 02sec file)Play videoGenesis crash landsThe Genesis sample return capsule tumbles through the sky and impacts the desert floor in Utah after its speed-slowing chute and parafoil failed to deploy for a mid-air recovery by a helicopter. (2min 29sec file)Play videoSlow-motionThis slow-motion video shows the Genesis capsule slamming into the ground. (1min 06sec file)Play videoAerial views of craterAerial views show the Genesis capsule half buried in the Utah desert floor after its landing system suffered a failure. (1min 53sec file)Play videoRecovery helicoptersThe primary and backup recovery helicopters take off with escort from a Blackhawk in preparation for the mid-air retrieval of Genesis. (1min 01sec file)Play videoThe original planAnimation shows how the Genesis spacecraft was supposed to return. Expert narration provided by JPL entry, descent and landing expert Rob Manning. (5min 29sec file)Play videoTuesday's hurricane news briefingThe Kennedy Space Center director and 45th Space Wing commander from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station hold a news conference Tuesday to describe damage from Hurricane Frances. (46min 15sec file)
Play audioFootage of KSC damageThis movie takes you on a tour of hurricane damage to Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building, shuttle tile manufacturing facility and press site. (3min 11sec file)
Play videoBecome a subscriberMore video

NewsAlert

Sign up for our NewsAlert service and have the latest news in astronomy and space e-mailed direct to your desktop.
Enter your e-mail address:Privacy note: your e-mail address will not be used for any other purpose.

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has set its infrared sight on a major galactic collision and witnessed the future of our own Milky Way galaxy. Sixty-eight million light-years away, the Antennae galaxies are locked in a dance of death, with stars being ripped from their orbits and spiral arms being shredded into streamers that dangle in space. Several billion years from now, our home might look the same as the Andromeda galaxy smashes into the Milky Way like a bulldozer through a condemned building.

Yet this distant galactic collision we see today is not yielding death, but
creating new life. With its heat-seeking eyes, Spitzer was able to see past
the dark storm of dust that blankets the heart of the merging Antennae
galaxies to a hidden population of new stars emerging inside.

"This more complete picture of star formation in the Antennae will help us
better understand the evolution of colliding galaxies, and the eventual fate
of our own," said Dr. Giovanni Fazio, a co-author of the research and an
astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). Fazio
is principal investigator for the Infrared Array Camera on Spitzer, which
captured the new Antennae image.

In the latest Antennae galaxies study, Spitzer found a new generation of
stars at the site where the two galaxies clash.

"We theorized that there were stars forming at that site, but we weren't
sure to what degree," said Dr. Zhong Wang, lead author of the new paper and
a CfA astronomer. "Now we see that the majority of star-forming activity in
both galaxies occurs in the overlap regions where the two meet."

The Antennae galaxies are a classic example of a galactic merger in action.
These two spiral galaxies, located 68 million light-years away, began
falling into each other around a common center of gravity about 800 million
years ago. As they continue to crash together, clouds of gas are shocked and
compressed in a process thought to trigger the birth of new stars.
Astronomers believe that the two galaxies will ultimately merge into one
spheroidal-shaped galaxy, leaving only hints of their varied pasts.

Galactic mergers are common throughout the universe and play a key role in
determining how galaxies grow and evolve. Our own Milky Way galaxy, for
example, will eventually collide with our closest neighbor, the Andromeda
galaxy.

Previous images of the Antennae taken by visible-light telescopes show
striking views of the swirling duo, with bright pockets of young stars
dotting the spiral arms. At the center of the galaxies, however, where the
two overlap, only a dark cloud of dust can be seen. In the new false-color
Spitzer image, which has been combined with an image from a ground-based,
visible-light telescope to highlight new features, this cloud of buried
stars appears bright red. Visible data, on the other hand, is colored blue
and indicates regions containing older stars. The nuclei, or centers, of the
two galaxies are white.

The new Spitzer image is reported in one of 86 Spitzer papers published in
the September issue of The Astrophysical Journal Supplement. This special
all-Spitzer issue comes just after the one-year anniversary of the
observatory's launch, and testifies to its tremendously successful first
year in space.

"This abundance of Spitzer papers just one year after launch shows that the
telescope is truly providing a new window on the universe," said Dr. Michael
Werner, project scientist for Spitzer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif. "These papers report the earliest results, so the best is
yet to come."

This release is being issued in conjunction with NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (JPL). JPL manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's
Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. Science operations are
conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena. JPL is a division of Caltech. Spitzer's Infrared
Array Camera was built by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics (CfA) is a joint collaboration between the Smithsonian
Astrophysical Observatory and the Harvard College Observatory. CfA
scientists, organized into six research divisions, study the origin,
evolution and ultimate fate of the universe.

Ares 1-X PatchThe official embroidered patch for the Ares 1-X rocket test flight, is available for purchase.U.S. STOREWORLDWIDE STOREApollo CollageThis beautiful one piece set features the Apollo program emblem surrounded by the individual mission logos.U.S. STOREExpedition 21The official embroidered patch for the International Space Station Expedition 21 crew is now available from our stores.U.S. STOREWORLDWIDE STOREHubble PatchThe official embroidered patch for mission STS-125, the space shuttle's last planned service call to the Hubble Space Telescope, is available for purchase.U.S. STOREWORLDWIDE STORE